Baraka

Simply one of the most beautiful films you will ever see. If it's near you on the big screen, you must not miss it. Otherwise, pour a glass of wine, sit closer to the TV than your Mom would prefer, and drop in. Welcome to the world as it is in real, bigger-than-life images of humanity, and all the colors of the spectrum. It moves a bit slowly, but you'll want for more.

Very few movies can actually be truly inspirational. A lot of movies make you feel good while watching it. This is different. This movie can breathe life back into your soul. It will brighten your outlook. It will make you think and keep you thinking long after the movie has ended. And even the most bitter of cynics (like me) cannot deny it's beauty. It will always remain one of my favorites. I cannot make it my favorite movie since it is so powerful and different I don't consider it a movie but an experience. It requires just a smidge of patience to suck you into it. But once it does you cannot avert your eyes. The most spectacular images ever. Not an ounce of pretention to it. No hollwood bull. Brilliant. Moving music. Do not miss this!!!! If you have a DVD buy this one. Watching it on a small screen will severely cut it's impact.

When I first experienced (that's the most striking word for it) this movie at the Gothenburg Film Festival 1994, I was truly amazed. Never before - or since - have I had such an over all explain-it-all feeling after a show.

Ron Fricke has made a documentary about the World today for a day: starting at dawn with monkeys in hot springs in Japan, and the morning rituals of various religions. This is followed by the awakening of the human race, both in the big cities and on the country side. Brilliantly edited together follows every aspect of human daily life combined with the general changes of the planet itself and all the ecological systems upon it.

The over all glue of the story are the various religious rituals. Maybe this is my personal interpretation, being a teacher of Religion, but the only time giver, except for the turning of the sun, are the praying times and times of worship peoples practice around the globe.

My comparison of the film to the GAIA idea (that the Earth as a whole being a unit, a living organism) is detectable both in the way every different cultures shown are found to be very similar to one another, as well as the speeded up people at side walks and zebra crossings look very much like the stream of blood in the veins of an organism.

All in all this is a marvellous movie pointing out both the uniqueness of the individual and the unity with all people. Go see it - now!

i've noticed quite a few people are sick and tired of the message this film was allegedly trying to hammer home. you folks need to relax. it's nothing more than a collage of images showing an extremely broad range of subjects. i personally thought it was extremely well made and i did think it was visually stunning and the music was also excellent. so it included kids picking through landfills. so what? it's something that goes on in our world and the director wisely chose to include it. i never got the impression that someone was trying to tell me that technology is responsible. it showed busy city streets, and it also showed serene mountain and jungle environments. was it trying to convince me one should be chosen over the other? i didn't think it was. it was doing what the film's creators were trying to do.... show various aspects of life. different going on's in our world. what was the point of showing jews at worship in jerusalem? what was the point of showing monks going about their daily lives? how about the funeral pyre in india (i'm assuming that was india)? people walking down sidewalks? was the director trying to tell anyone "technology bad!". none of these subjects have anything to do with technology. if you got the "technology bad!" message, then you're probably a little hypersensitive and are trying to defend yourself against accusations that haven't been made (at least not by this film). reading way too much into a collection of predominantly neutral and stunning images from around the world.

the sheen

Baraka is an ancient Sufi word, translated as a blessing or as the essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds. With the theme of man's diversity and his impact upon the environment, Baraka is a documentary photographed on six continents in 24 countries including Tanzania, China, Brazil, Japan, Nepal, the U.S. and Europe. It has no story and no dialogue, yet transcends geography and language to provide a sensual and spiritual experience that enables the viewer to look at the world in a totally different way.

When the film opens, a lone snow monkey sits in the middle of a hot spring, biding its time. The expression on its face is one of deep reflection and weariness. When it looks up at the stars, then closes its eyes, shutting itself off from its surroundings, I sensed my own inner longing for the infinite.

As the film progresses, we see the edge of a volcano in Hawaii, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Ryoan-Ji temple in Kyoto, Lake Natron in Tanzania, and the fire plains of Kuwait, their oil fires burning after the 1991 Gulf War. Through Fricke's camera, we glimpse various forms of religious expression from the chanting of monks to tribal celebrations in Africa and Brazil.

Baraka is almost like an updated version of Godfrey Reggio's 1983 film, Koyaanisqatsi. Using speeded-up images of hectic big city life with its homelessness and deprivation, interspersed with mountain vistas and forests, it depicts the mechanical nature of modern life as contrasted with the beauty of the natural world.

This film allowed me to see things I never knew existed, and to glimpse patterns of interconnectedness and a sense of balance and proportion in the world I was barely aware of. I was moved to simply look into people's faces and have them look back at me, allowing me to connect with the universality of the human spirit.

Fricke has said that Baraka was intended to be "a journey of rediscovery that plunges into nature, into history, into the human spirit and finally into the realm of the infinite." Unique in its beauty, sensitivity, and perception, Baraka succeeded, in the course of 90 minutes, in moving me from the humdrum of everyday reality to a calmer and more spiritual space